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What's a Wreck?

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

Now, "possessive" means that...[blinking]...ah, screw it. Can you just write the word "boss" so it's not plural OR possessive?

I'm really starting to question your taste level.

And you still spelled "you're" wrong.

Well, I don't think avoiding the issue is the answer. And stop saying, "Sounds like someone's got a case of the Mondays." That pin was lame in 1982. It's not getting any better.

_

[sigh] Alright, look, you want to see the perfect cake to get your boss? Something that gets right to the heart of the matter? Something spelled correctly, and conveying just the right amount of gratitude?

Note from John: It's true, some people accept "Bosses Day" as correct. However, considering this is a day for either your boss or your bosses, it really should be Boss's Day or Bosses' Day. Of course, the original singular possessive of boss was Boss', but I think that hurt our American brains so we added the extra s. Just make sure you never use Bosseses' Day and you should be fine.

Oh my gosh, I shouldn't have read this post while I'm still drinking my coffee. At least I managed to put the cup down and swallow without choking.

And a non-funny comment -- yes, the current thought is that you write the final S when the sound is pronounced. So while I'm sure there are times that you can still leave it off, since we almost always say it, we get to write it now, too. Our literal American brains are much happier that way. (^_^)

Bwah, thanks for the tag-on John! You beat me to it. Personally I think that Boss' Day is still correct -- but then again you're right -- it DOES kind of hurt my li'l ole American brain to see that written that way!

I agree with Trixie--the yellow cake with the stapler & pin is definitely a reference to Office Space. And the fact that the expression is lame is part of the joke; there's a character in the movie who repeats it several times, and you can tell that while she thinks it's cute, everyone else knows it's not. The only problem I have with that cake (other than avoiding the apostrophe issue) is the weird pseudo-border...I think they were trying to make it look like a yellow post-it note, which would be another Office Space reference, but, well...it didn't work.

@Nagzilla: heehee. That's funny. They can't get Boss' right so we will give them something even harder instead. Well, it has more letters than Boss', but with all the extra letters they've been trying to wrangle in there, the two words are nearly the same length.

I say we just make it Bose Day so we can all have an excuse to tune out our coworkers/bosses and enjoy our superior sound systems.

By the way, thank you! We had forgotten it was Boss's (Boss') Day at my office until I saw your post! I zipped down to the local grocery store in our small town and had them put lettering on a cake for us, since nothing was pre-wrecked. The baker spelled and punctuated everything correctly, but wow! What ghastly blue frosting she chose!! I should submit a pic.

Not only that, Angela, but now it looks like it's spelled wrong, whether or not it is. At least, to me it does.

I have two sons whose names end in s. I prefer not to use possessives for them at all because the grammar rule is kind of ambiguous (apparently, they didn't foresee all the singular nouns ending in s). I blame the pregnancy hormones for not foreseeing this difficulty ahead of time. :)

I was starting to wonder if you knew how to spell boss' since none of those were correct. Thanks for adding the note at the bottom so I didn't have to embarrass you for not knowing English. Like se lady told my grandma down in Yuma, "You Canadians are lucky because you have two languages: English and French. All we got is American."

I submitted one of these. I spelled it right on the form at Costco, BUT...the employee crossed it out the re-wrote it "boss's". (I wish I had kept the proof). Anyway, I was more than happy to point that out to the cashier when I checked out. She got a nice laugh for the day.

The possessive of one boss is boss's but the possessive of two (plural) is bosses'. In this case it needs to be plural, or it would mean just one boss. All the rest wouldn't get this day, just like Mothers' Day is for all mothers. As well, the day belongs to the bosses. That makes it is a plural possessive.

#1 give credit for a nice, even border. that takes practice.#2 certainly does not have a handle on geometry. Is that a trapezoid? (and just like THAT [snaps fingers] I have the song "Freakazoid" in my head...now, you do, too- HA)#3 "Nappy Boos's?" Is that like Nappy Blob Blob? (only book owners will understand)#4 has pretty roses#5 has orange roses and Jen likes orange. the end.#6 (picks jaw off ground) moving right along#7 what an eye catching color. now, give me my eye back!#8 yup. works for me.

My graduating class in high school was the first one to have to pass Florida's functional literacy test, without which we could not graduate. On the first diagnostic run, EVERYONE missed possessive apostrophe use. Mr. Hoffman, peace be upon him, explained it to us in about five minutes. Then we all passed it, and went on to do so when the actual test was presented.

It's just not that hard to get perfectly correct. I suppose, however, that it has to matter to you whether you are writing intelligibly or not.

Oh come on! #6 is perfect for the medical profession. We have a sense of humor that lends itself to the gross. OB/GYN office PERFECT. Personally right now reviewing GYN charts. I can use that for anatomy reference.

Oh I really hope that uterus cake was for a gynecologist lmao. If not, I would be very afraid of who got said cake. And hope that whoever it was didn't get upset about it. Too bad the one with the pretty roses was ruined by the misspelling. Ah well.

Boss's is correct. To form the possessive of a singular noun that ends in an s sound, be guided by the way you pronounce the word. If a new syllable is formed in the pronunciation of the possessive, add an apostrophe plus s.

I'm American, but I always write it boss', without the extra s. And that goes for the possessive of all words ending in s, as "Jesus' birthday animal balloon" or what have you.That being said, the s's is also perfectly acceptable. I think it's just a matter of personal preference, like the Oxford comma. And I definitely think the flair is a shoutout to Office Space, which makes it most excellent. "It's a mat with *conclusions* on it... that you *jump* to!"

I don´t live in America but here i Sweden most people kiss up to the boss all year round. It´s a bit strange that Americans have a special day for it. It seems like the complete opposite to Secretaries Day. That day i understand: making the boss look good + low wages + no appreciation = cake. But the boss? Wouldn´t it be better if the boss bought cake for the staff for putting upp with all the "leadership" of the last year?

I was taught (at an old-fashioned school where grammar was hammered into us) that 'boss's' was the correct singular possessive. That was in the UK, so it sounds as though it's actually American to say 'boss' day' if one boss is meant. I am delighted to say that 'Boss's Day' doesn't exist here - I'm all for celebrating things with cake, but I'd rather get one saying 'Congratulations for coping with your boss' and take it home!